50-70 Shiloh Sharps Military Rifle

[Eric Johanen]

The nice thing I noticed with the BACO 492/500 grain swaged pure lead bullet was that they did shoot very well and left no leading in the bore. Next time I get the molds hot I'll cast some of the BACO 492/500 bullets out of pure or very soft lead and see how they group. I have shot several deer here in Wisconsin with the 45-70/ 500 grain sized to .458 RN Government bullet from the Lyman mold and the 50-70/450 grain sized to .512 Lyman bullet at 20/1 and they left nice big holes in them! They did not go very far and were expired when I walked up to them. Through and through penetration. Not sure how much expansion one would get on a whitetail with a velocity of 1150-1200 fps? Their bodies are really not very hard or wide. The 74 Military rifle really makes a great hunting rifle ( nice handy weight and equipped with sling) The do have an outrageous "cool" factor compared to the classic deer rifles in the north woods. Will be annealing that brass for the next outing.....Panned lubed some of the Accurate Molds 51.465s bullets last night. They drop from the mold so nice and round that I did not want to screw them up by running through the lube sizer die. Too many nice rifles and not enough time to use them!